My dad fit into a category many would call “perfectionist.” His socks were neatly folded and color-coded. The hangers in his closet were always spaced exactly the same distance apart. He even scrubbed out the garbage cans on a weekly basis. Living up to his standard of perfection was hard. I guess that’s why I gave up and turned into a slob.

Perfection! (the game) is a fun puzzle title that is just as hard to be successful at as it is to live up to a perfectionist’s standards. Only, it is actually fun. You won’t have to clean the bottom corners of your closet with an old toothbrush or restack dishes that don’t sit properly in the cupboard. You just have to play the game. Perfectly…

Design

The game board is made up of a grid of circular tiles with teardrop-like arrows inside them. The background is white and the tiles are a shade of aquamarine. Depending on the difficulty level you play, the grid ranges in size from 3 x 3 to 7 x 7.

When you tap a tile, the arrow inside rotates and points in a different direction. The adjacent tile that the arrow was pointing at will “flip” and its arrow will disappear. If you flip the same tile again, it will start to throb. The wavering tile signifies that, if the tile is flipped one more time, the game ends.

The relaxing soundtrack that accompanies the game helps keep you calm in the midst of a near breakdown. I’m starting to really enjoy the Zen like music that seems to find its way into puzzle games these days.

If you find yourself having a difficult time achieving perfection – and you will – you can use two controls to help you though. The Restart button in the bottom right corner makes it possible for you to restart the current level. You can only activate the restart button once per level. The Swap button in the bottom left corner lets you change the direction of the arrows of remaining unflipped tiles. You can only swap tiles twice per level and the second swap might be a trap.

Gameplay

Players start by picking the grid size. As mentioned above, you can choose from 3 x 3, all the way up to 7 x 7. I highly recommend starting out with the smallest size grid until you get the hang of the game.

The board will populate with the number of tiles you choose. Each tile will have an arrow inside it which points to a different tile. Some point up or down. Others point left or right. There are also arrows pointing diagonally. Tiles that are on an end will point to the next row either above or below. For example, if a tile is in the last row and its arrow points downward, the first tile in the top row will be flipped.

When you tap the tile, the adjacent tile that the arrow was pointing at will flip. That tile’s arrow will disappear. The goal is to flip all tiles no more than two times. If you can successfully flip every tile on the board only once (except the last one), you will achieve perfection and score higher points. You can still pass a level without getting perfection. The score is just lower.

The thing that makes this game tricky is that whenever you tap one tile, the arrow automatically rotates randomly. You don’t know if it will land on a flipped tile, or one that still needs to be flipped. You can plan and strategize all you want, but in the end, if the last two arrows are pointing at the same, already flipped tile, you will lose the game.

I successfully achieved perfection once. It was a total surprise. I still don’t really know how I did it. I was also starting to get pretty good at the 3 x 3 grid, but still failed a lot of the time. I couldn’t even win a single time on the 4 x 4 grid. I found that I could last longer on the larger grids, but still never won a round.

The Good

The game is fun. You don’t have to get too involved, since your strategy and planning can only take you so far. It is almost more successful to just randomly tap arrows, hoping to clear the board.

I love that you can still progress in the game, even if you don’t achieve perfection. It’s like my dad is telling me he still loves me, even if I don’t fold my t-shirts the same way he does.

The Bad

I’d really like to be able to play the game without the randomness. Oh, guess what. The dev told me that the next update, which will be coming very soon, features a new game mode that allows you to play the game without the random factor. Yay!

Value

Perfection! costs $0.99. That is the appropriate price for a game like this. Actually, it is relatively low considering the levels are completely random, so the replay value is sky high. Plus, you can select from five different sized grids for even more gameplay.

Conclusion

Fans of simple puzzle games should grab this now. It is challenging enough to push you to try again and again without making you feel like you are too stupid to play it. The update that will be available soon adds even more excitement with additional modes and more visual enhancements. This game is available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Download it in the App Store today.

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